Author Charles Frazier seems unable to make a literary misstep. In “Nightwoods” he spins another country yarn of North Carolina mountain life. Luce is a young woman living in a long abandoned mountain lodge as it’s caretaker. Her quiet life is suddenly interrupted by the arrival of her murdered sister’s two children, damaged and mute. Luce is not equipped to handle sudden ‘motherhood’, especially given the wild children’s predilection to setting fires and killing chickens. Just as she feels she maybe making a connection with them, two men enter her life, one who may finally succeed in wooing her, the other her sister’s murderer and he’s out to silence witnesses.

I literally could not put this beautifully written novel down until I regretfully reached the final page.